Archive for the ‘People’ Category

Charitable donations come from the heart –not the head, not the wallet. The World Wildlife Fund knows this — and so it seeks donations for its work in Mozambique by telling the story of one person who has benefited from it. That’s why the Due Diligence Test Panel described the email with words like ”heartful,” ”emotional” and ”hopeful.” They rated this fundraising email the second best of the test batch I had them review.

In contrast, the North Florida Land Trust is trying to impress donors with a summary of its accomplishments (550 acres protected in 2009) and the size and urgency of the threats. This is exactly the story that grantmakers want to hear — but everyday citizens find it hard to wrap their hearts around that. The test panel described the Trust’s email with words like “important,” but also “lacking” and “confusing.” They rated this piece second from the bottom in the test batch.

Here are some interesting numbers — look at the big deficit WWF overcame in one key area to clinch second place. That’s good environmental writing right there (click the image to see it in full size).

Environmental Writing Takeaways

Do you believe that WWF’s work in Mozambique is inherently more appealing than the work of the North Florida Land Trust? I don’t. Not by a long shot. WWF’s email is fundamentally about fishery management council meetings, which have brought tears to my eye on more than one occasion… of boredom. WWF’s email is the work of a crack fundraiser: someone knew that human angle was in there, they sifted through a pile of field reports until they found it – and omitted the rest.

WWF spun a silk purse out of a sow’s ear, so to speak. And the North Florida Land Trust has done the opposite — hiding a potentially moving story behind faceless issues and numbers.

My land trust clients tell me that landowners often cry when they sign the documents that will preserve the family farm forever. They are overcome with sorrow at the thought losing the land to ugly modern development. They speak movingly of preserving their family heritage and knowing that their grandchildren will hunt the fields, fish the creeks, and make pies with apples from the orchard. Saving the farm is gesture of hope for the future, a chance to make a difference that will last for generations. And for good measure, the whole community benefits from their choice.

But you wouldn’t know any of that from reading the North Florida Land Trust’s email, now would you?

Click the links below to see the original pieces and the full Due Diligence Test Panel feedback on them:

World Wildlife Fund

• “Showing Some Heart for Lake Niassa” fundraising email
• Due Diligence Test Panel critique of this email

North Florida Land Trust

• “Now is the Time” fundraising email
• Due Diligence Test Panel critique of this email

P.S. The true purpose of the DDTP is to evaluate draft fundraising and other materials – so you can improve them! Once I finish testing and launch the service, you’ll get your feedback in confidence. Not on the blog for all to see.

Dr. Robert Cialdini is an important influence on my thinking, and he nails it in an interview with Grist earlier this week:

Changing people’s knowledge, changing people’s attitudes, changing people’s beliefs are all on the surface of changing their behavior. So let’s cut to the chase: Let’s change their behavior. There are techniques for doing it that don’t involve having to change any of those [other] things.

Cialdini doesn’t stop with that zinger, he focuses on a variety of ways that good environmental communication and writing can contribute to addressing energy and water problems. Definitely worth a read!

Environmental Communications Expert Interview

Thanks to A.I. for the tip!

I’m not sure what you would call this thing. Is it a poster? A cut-out? A kiosk? Whatever it is, environmental communications professionals should imitate it. Behavioral and market research suggests that this advertisement (snapped on the cell phone in a movie theater lobby) has a simple and well chosen message — everybody else is doing the right thing, so should you. I bet this poster is more persuasive than pictures of accident victims on the hood of a wrecked vehicle.

Also, it is 100% message method compliant!

• Step One: Begin with Behavior. Check — wear your seatbelt.
• Step Two: Find Foolproof Photos. Check — there she is, wearing her seatbelt. And you can see her face.
• Step Three: Swap the Shoptalk. Check – no traffic industry jargon anywhere.
• Step Four: Insert the Words That Work. Check. I’m giving them credit for “doing your part” (because the slogan “everybody’s doing it”) and “law” (because they use “enforcement”)

Good job!

Scientists who study the natural world can be uncomfortable with human’s basic irrationality. But for psychologists and scientists who study human behavior, it’s a fact of life. Yesterday, the Washington Post ran a story called “Its Natural to Behave Irrationally,” which explores possibilities for communications about global warming that swim with the current of human nature instead of against it.

I note with interest one important word that pops up frequently in the story — behavior. As in the disciplines of “behavioral economics,” and “behavioral psychology.” Implicit to this story is that if you want to change people’s habits in ways that reduce global warming, you will have to define those behaviors and work towards them specifically. None of the experts cited in the article seem to believe that general “awareness” leads to much concrete action.

Farenthold summarizes some of the work this way:

…tap into two powerful human impulses: to be like one’s neighbors and then to beat them at something.

Among the evidence supporting this approach is a 2007 study conducted in San Diego. Researchers hung fliers on doornobs featured four different messages urging energy conservation:

1. Conserve energy because it helps the environment
2. Conserve energy because it is socially responsible
3. COnserve energy because you will save money
4. Conserve energy because most of your neighbors are doing their part already

These are all decent enough, but when researchers went around and read the electrical meters of those households, the largest gains were found at homes that had received message #4.

More good examples in the Washington Post about environmental communication and behavior change.